China
by frodoschick
Summary: -Rise of the Golden Army, 2008 movie- Prince Nuada needs answers. He goes to see the one who can provide them...China. But he must beware...for to see China is to love China...


An idea I got. Nothing really meant or such. I was bored.

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Disclaimer- I own nothing. Not even China. She's from the book "Skullduggery Pleasant". I just thought that it fit. It worked. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. Whatever.

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Dedication- To my friend who went with me to see the Rise of the Golden Army. Definitely the movie of the summer.

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Prince Nuada looked up at the lit open window, a soft jazz tune caressing his ears from the room. China's apartment. Anyone who wanted to know anything went to China. He glanced about the empty street, the lamp-lights dead, no light coming from anywhere--except the open window. A woman's shadow slid over the ceiling and the window closed. He walked to the front stoop and knocked. A elderly woman answered.

"May I help you, sir?"

"I come seeking answers." he replied, seeing the old woman for the young nature spirit she was. She glared at him with her sharp green eyes.

"Who seeks answers?" she asked.

"Prince Nuada." he said, not taking his pale gaze from her. She shifted, still staring at him.

"Does he seek for himself or for others?" she continued.

"Himself."

"One moment." she closed the door again, leaving him out on the stoop. He smirked slightly. Of course, he didn't expect any different. China used her own rules and regulations. You had to follow China's rules in her house. He stood there for a few more moments, leaves blowing about his feet. The door opened again, the tree spirit bowing to him.

"China approves." she said, standing to one side. He stepped in, careful to leave his weapons in the foyer. China was a pacifist, she would not speak to anyone carrying weapons. The tree spirit beckoned to him, leading him up a flight of stairs. She opened a door, which lead to a parlor.

"Wait here, your Highness." she said, closing the door behind him. He stood in the same spot that where she had put him, not moving an inch. His eyes took in the room, looking around with bored curiosity. There were many magical objects disguised as regular house-hold items and there was a gnome sweeping up the corner. The gnome bowed as he exited. Nuada kept still.

"Prince Nuada. Tis a pleasure to see you here." said a silky voice from the doorway opposite him. A tall Old One stepped forth, looking for all the world as if she were in her twenties, not the twenty thousands. He bowed low, keeping his pale eyes averted from her bright blue ones. For to see China is to love China...and you can never leave her...

"A pleasure to see you, China." he replied, straightening up. He looked just to the left of her while she smiled.

"You come seeking answers?" she asked, her white robe blending into her skin flawlessly.

"Yes." he said, still not moving from the spot.

"What is it you wish to know?" she asked, stepping forward to a bookshelf, her long pale fingers gliding along the old spines of the books.

"The whereabouts of my sister." he said.

"Ah. Princess Nuala. You cannot find her on your own?" she asked, looking at him from the corner of her eyes. His gaze did not meet hers.

"I cannot see where she is. I can find her mind, but I cannot see. This is not usual." he said, eyes looking anywhere else, except her eyes. She sighed with a smile.

"You can hide things from her, can you not?"

"Yes."

"Then, perhaps, she has learned to hide things from you." said China, her fingers pausing on a thin blue book. He remained silent, not saying that he already knew that. It wouldn't do to point things like that out here. China pulled a similar book out, this one being red. She flipped through it, her pale fingers stopping on a page. "Do you know who she might have gone with?"

He reached into a pouch, pulling out a cigar butt and short black hair. "Hellboy. He and his crew. They have taken her somewhere and I know not where it is." China took some white chalk from a pot on the mantle, quickly clearing off a section of a wooden table. She drew several interlocking circles, drawing the Old Language characters for Nuala's name, his name, Hellboy's name. She set the cigar butt and the hair in another circle. She then grabbed Nuada's hand, a blade appearing in her pale hands. He let her. A single drop of blood dropped to the second-to-last circle. She then let a drop of her own blood fall into the last circle.

The circles began to glow. China's eyes took on the same strange blue light, her voice growing harsh and low. He stepped back. Old Magick was at work here. China began to chant, her black hair swirling with the Magick waves. She spoke in the Old Language, Nuada speaking two lines with her.

_"...to find what was lost  
go past what one can see..." _The light faded from China's eyes, the waves of Magick stirred and stilled. The cigar butt and hair were gone from the table, as well as the chalk and blood. She took a deep breath, then went to a drawer, pulled out a map and circled a point.

"There." she said, folding it and placing it in his hands. "That is all I could find."

"I thank you, China." he said, placing it in his pouch. He'd study it outside. "Your payment?"

She thought for a moment, then sidled up to him, cupping his chin in a pale hand. "A single kiss from you." she said, smiling. He pulled his chin from her fingers, face expressionless.

"I am not a mere sprite or human, China." he said, not looking into her eyes. "You cannot entice me so easily."

She smirked, her black hair falling over her shoulder. "Maybe I know that." she said, a small spark dancing in her eyes. "Maybe that is why I ask that price."

"It is a price I am willing to negotiate." he said, face still stony. She pouted slightly, then slid over to the doorway from whence she entered.

"Then the usual, Nuada." she said, vanishing into the darkness beyond. He placed a small sack of opals upon the table, leaving the way he came. The young tree spirit showed him out and he was walking down the street in minutes, the soft sound of lonely jazz flowing from the apartment's now open window.

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Review if you liked, review if you didn't. I would like some opinions please. Thank you for reading!


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